Talk:Omega (Earthforce ship)
In that post by JMS, he said probably the Achilles was the first off the production line. That doesn't mean the Achilles was actually the first, but we do have an EAS Omega. --Farragut79 05:33, 4 May 2009 (UTC) :Unless we actually saw an Omega class destroyer, I'd hesitate to make ANY assumptions, no matter how logical they may seem. Also keep in mind that the Omega class wasn't conceived until season 2, so it's unlikely this ship was meant to be a destroyer. :Also in the interest of hair splitting, it wasn't called the "EAS Omega", it was refereed to as "Earthforce ship Omega". "EAS" means "Earth Alliance Starship", in that context the Omega could just have been a military transport, not a Starship. :On top of that, JMS's post seams pretty clear that he doesn't think the class HAS to be named after the first ship and yes "first off the production line" does mean the first ship.Blind Wolf 15:11, 4 May 2009 (UTC) ::That doesn't make sense. Where in Babylon 5 does it make the distinction between starships as EAS and military transports as not EAS. If so please give me a reference. If it is true then I have no qualms about it, but all I am saying is give a certain leeway because all I am saying is that there was an Earthforce ship, Omega, which could be anything from garbage scow to battleship and the Achilles was only mentioned that is was probably the first off the production line, which could mean it was the first non-prototype vessel to come off the assembly line. --Farragut79 16:10, 4 May 2009 (UTC) :::Being an "Earthforce ship" doesn't necessarily mean it was an Earthforce Destroyer. It just means it's a ship that belongs to Earthforce and it stands to reason that only a very small percentage of Earthforce ships are actual warships, let alone destroyers. More to the point, it's not for this Wiki to start filling in the blanks with non-canon data and if JMS has said that the first Omega was probably called "Achilles" then that's the end of it. There was an Earthforce ship Omega, ok. There's an Omega-Class, fine. But let's not joint up the dots for the sake of it. It's the very same reason why the "Primus" and "Sharlin" prototype articles have been flagged for deletion; they're not canon ships and neither is an EAS Omega that happens to be the of the Omega-Class. If we had SEEN an Omega destroyer in that episode it'd be a different matter, but we didn't so it isn't.Blind Wolf 18:05, 4 May 2009 (UTC) ::There are canon, if the whole class is name after them, and there is on screen evidence for it on other vessels. Besides, I think we should put on a consensus from the other contributors and the administrators. The guys at B5Tech forum agree with me. --Farragut79 20:03, 4 May 2009 (UTC) :::They're not canon at all. Canon is what has been directly stated or depicted in canon source material. We have no idea how alien cultures select class names for their ships and it's not for this wiki to start making it up, even if it may seam perfectly logical. Getting back to the Omega, I now vaguely recall one of the old RPG source books directly addressing the fact that there was never an Omega-class destroyer and that the name Omega was a bit of hyperbole intending to mean that this is the last (read best) destroyer that Earthforce will ever build (Omega being the last letter in the greek alphabet.) Now I'm not certain which book this cropped up in, but I think it was one of the earlier ones. Either way, it seams to line up with JMS's comments. Plus here he specifically says in that post that "Alpha" wouldn't be a name used "since that isn't a name out of Greek mythology.", which all the early Omegas seamed to be named after, a fact he reiterates here: http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-4709 and here: http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-4124. On top of all that, while naming a class after the first hull (or visa versa) is common in modern navies, a little research shows that such is not always the case. Sometimes the class name comes from the general theme of ship names in that class, for instance, the old Royal Navy Tribal-Class destroyers were named after tribes (Zulu, Amazon etc.) but there was never an "HMS Tribal". :::I'm still inclined to move this article to "Omega (Earthforce ship)" to avoid confusion rather than leave it as "EAS Omega".Blind Wolf 01:50, 5 May 2009 (UTC) :Alright, I agree with the facts about the Omega Class, which doesn't jibe with the other classes such as the Hyperion Class and the White Star Class. So if you go by what JMS said about the Roanoke and the Clarkstown, then they would be brand new vessels commissioned from 2259 to 2260. I think the EAS Omega is fine as long as we but a note that this is not a confirmed Omega Class vessel. --Farragut79 04:20, 5 May 2009 (UTC) ::Which is what we already have. ;) Blind Wolf 14:55, 5 May 2009 (UTC) :::Just doing a run of screen caps for season one and you can actually see the Omega right at the start of "By Any Means Necessary" and that is DEFINATLY not an Omega Class or even a warship. It's one of those old style "orange sausage" Earth transports. No way can that be classified as a starship. I'm even more convinced than before that the article should be moved to "Omega (Earthforce ship)". Blind Wolf 02:51, 2 July 2009 (UTC) :Unless there is evidence that Earthforce uses other prefixes for their vessels, there is no reason to move it. --Farragut79 05:10, 2 July 2009 (UTC) ::Well by that logic, there's no evidence that they use the prefix for anything other than warships either, so that's a non-argument. It was referred to simply as "Earthforce ship omega" not "EAS Omega" or "Earth Alliance Starship Omega". Conversely I don't think any of the Cruisers or Destroyers were ever individually refereed to as just "the Earthforce ship whatever". ::Case in point: - :: ::& :: ::QED ::Oh and just for the sake of clarity, this is the design used for the Omega and it appeared to be even smaller than a shuttle (which you could tell because it passed right by one.) Seriously, there's no way that's a starship! Which is what the 'S' in EAS stands for.Blind Wolf 07:57, 2 July 2009 (UTC)